in a nutshell: december 2012: part 2

lauren turned 2 on the 14th of December! wow, 2 already!

this girl is so dang cute I can barely stand it!

checking out her awesome hand-me-down
birthday shirt from her sister.

a pretty new dress for church.
going through all of brooklin's old clothes there
weren't very many winter dresses in lauren's current size.
they were all spring and summery.

lauren's bff stopped by with a gift. ellie is such a sweetie!

opening presents at grandpa and grandma's house!

an ariel cake picked out by brooklin because lauren really didn't care.

scott relighting the candles because lo blew them out the second
they were lit so no one got a picture. and then when it came
time to blow them out again, she couldn't do it.
it was quite funny.

if you can see lauren's lips are blue it's because she didn't wait
for a piece to be cut for her, she apparently thought the whole
cake was fair game. afterall, it was HER birthday, right?

scott and brooklin constructed the gingerbread house this year for the alcorn family build off. they did an awesome job. scott had the vision and brooklin helped him bring it forth.

what a team!

the masterpiece

lego guy hanging on for dear life .
the ladder fell out from underneath him while he was
hanging up the lights on the house.

I didn't have to purchase Christmas dresses this year. lauren, of course, is wearing a hand-me-down from her sister, and brooklin's from last year still fit. score!

my beautiful girls ready for church.

we spent Christmas with scott's mom this year. it was a lot of fun, but it may be the last year we travel anywhere for Christmas. it was just crazy packing up all the gifts, and making sure the santa stuff was well hidden on the drive down, and then of course not being in your own bed which = not enough sleep which then = cranky me! not being able to do things the way i would necessarily do them. that is a tough one for me, certain things I like to have control over. and then not wanting to get all the little parts to the girls' new toys out because they'd lose track of them, which they did. don't get me wrong, we had a very lovely time, and the girls really loved playing with their cousins (scott's step-sister was there with her 3 girls), I just think there would be a lot less stress if we were home.

decorating cookies for santa. we had a ton, I brought some that
brooklin and I had made before hand, not knowing that scott's mom
was making some too!

I think a lot of the cookies ended up in the garbage because there was
no way santa was going to be able to eat that many.
as it was, santa was already up most of the night with an upset tummy.
maybe next year he'll have a little more self control. poor santa!